Face to Face with Political Islam

(Hardback)

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The portrayal of Islamic movements as a tide of religious fanaticism threatening the West, and major participants in the coming "clash of civilizations", has provoked a multifaceted debate of great significance to the future of international relations. This text argues that political Islam's desire to restore a culture distorted by colonization does not necessarily compromise its progress to more democracy and greater tolerance. From Rabat to Gaza, through Algiers and Cairo, the author carried out his enquiry through interviews with prominent Islamists, and he allows them to speak for themselves in the book. Among the issues addressed are the relationship between Islam and modernity, Islamism and women, and questions of violence.

Reviews

""Burgat makes a strong case that Islamism is neither inherently anti-democratic nor irreversibly committed to violent confrontation with the West.""-- Douglas Little, International Affairs
.".".issues addressed are the relationship between Islam and modernity, Islamism and women and the question of violence.""--Fred Rhodes, The Middle East Journal
""Extraordinarily salutary reading. . . it helps to show the movement that is political Islamism as it really is - a challenge to all our certainties, received ideas and 'universal' and 'absolute' truths."" -Mouna Naim, Le Monde

""Burgat brilliantly rebuts the stereotype that modernity in the sense of democracy, secularism, respect for human rights, access of women to public arena, and the political integration of the individual are all what Islamism sets out to resist."" -Amidu Olalekan Sanni, Journal of Oriental and African Studies

Author Bio

FranCois Burgat is Researcher at the CNRS in Paris.